Laptop computers

Richard WallaceSpartanburg

Published: Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 3:15 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 12:00 a.m.

Excuse the obvious question, which I have not seen addressed anywhere in the discussion on the proposal to provide computers for all eighth-grade students. Just what is the evidence that this program will have any positive impact on student outcomes? Over the past 40 years, we have seen one gimmick and fad after another that promised to improve classroom performance, often at considerable cost. Guess what the results have been.

Education of our children is too serious a matter to be left up to wishful thinking and pie-in-the-sky dreams. There are many competing needs, such as improved facilities (i.e. plumbing and lights that work), teacher pay and reduced classroom size, that could also use $30 million initially plus $10 million per year (if anyone actually believes those figures.) We deserve some sort of evidence that this program will actually result in improvements in reading and computational skills. If there is no such evidence, perhaps a more modest experiment might be in order -- try it in a couple of school districts and evaluate the results.

<p>Excuse the obvious question, which I have not seen addressed anywhere in the discussion on the proposal to provide computers for all eighth-grade students. Just what is the evidence that this program will have any positive impact on student outcomes? Over the past 40 years, we have seen one gimmick and fad after another that promised to improve classroom performance, often at considerable cost. Guess what the results have been.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Education of our children is too serious a matter to be left up to wishful thinking and pie-in-the-sky dreams. There are many competing needs, such as improved facilities (i.e. plumbing and lights that work), teacher pay and reduced classroom size, that could also use $30 million initially plus $10 million per year (if anyone actually believes those figures.) We deserve some sort of evidence that this program will actually result in improvements in reading and computational skills. If there is no such evidence, perhaps a more modest experiment might be in order -- try it in a couple of school districts and evaluate the results.</p>